IF Barcelona festival will celebrate its 12th edition from 3 to 29 November, consolidating its position as a leading event for visual theatre, object theatre and puppetry.

With twelve years of experience, IF Barcelona reaffirms its position as one of the few platforms in Spain dedicated to these performing arts languages. The project brings together the festival and two initiatives with their own distinct identities that extend its reach: Teixidores, a meeting and reflection space for artists and the main driving force behind its internationalisation, and Objectes Perduts, a year-round programme combining presentation, creation and mediation and ensuring that activities continue beyond the festival.

The festival will present around thirty projects across 17 cultural venues in Barcelona, Sabadell, L’Hospitalet, Santa Coloma, El Prat and Palau-solità i Plegamans. The programme includes performances, premieres, installations, residencies, workshops, laboratories and mediation projects featuring prominent artists and companies such as Romeo Castellucci, Cia. L’Alinéa, Taller Placer, Alex Peña, David Ymbernon, Javiera Gazitua, the Canadian company SNAFU, AzkonaToloza and Jaume Clotet.

Tickets are available on the festival website: https://ifbarcelona.cat/programacio/

IF Barcelona champions artistic sustainability in the face of the constant production of new work

The 12th edition reaffirms a particular approach to festival-making: less focused on novelty and more committed to lasting connections. In a sector shaped by the constant pressure to produce, IF Barcelona revisits works, reconnects with artists, supports creative processes and strengthens a growing network of venues and collaborators. It is a commitment to artistic sustainability and a form of resistance to relentless production. The aim is not merely to showcase these performing arts practices, which remain underrepresented in established circuits, but to build the space, relationships and community they need to continue developing and establishing themselves.

Throughout November, this approach takes shape in a programme of national and international projects aimed at adult audiences and audiences of all ages. The festival will present 24 performances, including 6 by international companies, and 3 workshops, 2 of them also led by international companies. With 6 premieres, this edition reinforces IF Barcelona’s role as a platform that gives visibility to new work by its resident artists and welcomes pieces just beginning their journey, while also revisiting previously premiered works and supporting their continued development.

PERFORMANCES

The Fundació Joan Brossa hosts two of the most prominent international productions in this twelfth edition: Il Terzo Reich, by Romeo Castellucci, and the wild, irreverent Epidermis Circus, by the Canadian company SNAFU. At the same venue, Víctor Colmenero premieres Se necesita un pantalón, a contemporary reinterpretation of an unpublished text by Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Thanks to Joan Gil, who gave the artist access to the text, the project brings this work back to life and explores its resonance in the present. Audiences can also discover Recreativos Federico, by Alex Peña, an installation featuring seven arcade machines that transforms the world of Federico García Lorca into a space of play, humour and poetry, offering an ironic take on the consumption of artistic heritage.

The programme also continues the festival’s relationships with artists who return to share new creations and research. This is the case of Sònia Gómez, who presents ELK at the Mercat de les Flors, and Kotomi Nishiwaki and Francisco Camacho, who bring their new creation, Emerging Still, to La Caldera. At the Antic Teatre, AzkonaToloza & amigues present Un día de veinticinco horas, an approach to Entre Océanos y mares that offers audiences the opportunity to discover a work in progress. The programme also features the premiere of Ghost in the Machine, by Karla Kracht.

The festival’s international dimension extends to the Teatre Sagarra in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, which hosts the International Glove Puppet Day: From Tradition to Contemporaneity. Facilitated by Toni Rumbau, the event brings together Tre servi alla prova, by I Burattini di Mattia (Italy), and Petites histoires sans paroles, by L’Alinéa (France), to explore the renewal of glove puppetry in contemporary performance.

In El Prat de Llobregat, Teatre L’Artesà presents Antipodi, by the Italian company Dromosofista, and Poemas dentales, by Chilean artist Javier Mansilla, while La Capsa hosts Mapa caníbal, by Colombian artist Maria Camila Sanjinés.

The festival also expands its network of collaborations with alternative venues: Llibreria La Social presents Vida y muerte del Dr. Fausto, by Colectivo Patillas Black, and Sala Taro hosts Jrap à poil, by Xavier Michel, as part of the 4×4 series.

EDUCATIONAL AND MEDIATION PROJECTS

Training has its own dedicated space within IF Barcelona, with three workshops offering an opportunity to explore the artistic languages and creative processes of invited artists. SNAFU will give a talk and lead a workshop at the Institut del Teatre as part of the institution’s 50th anniversary of Visual Theatre. Cia. Dromosofista will lead an intensive workshop at the Museu Internacional dels Titelles de Catalunya, while Macarena Recuerda Shepherd will run a workshop based on her performance Si fuera una película, in collaboration with La Caldera.

The festival’s connection with local communities takes shape through El gest compartit, a mediation project initiated by CAP Les Hortes, the Poble-sec and Font de la Guatlla Social Services, La Comunitària and IF Barcelona. Aimed at people caring for dependent family members, the project combines trencadís mosaic, performance and object theatre to create spaces for leisure, creativity and social interaction, supported by La Gloria Factoria and Teatro en Movimiento Callejerx.

IF BARCELONA RESIDENT ARTISTS

IF Barcelona offers resident artists time, working spaces and support to develop their projects while respecting the pace of each creative process. This support also encourages dialogue with professionals and communities who help enrich the work.

The project continues to grow through a joint creation call with Fira Mediterrània de Manresa and a residency programme developed in collaboration with El Canal de Salt, Fabra i Coats, Nau Ivanow, Convent de les Arts d’Alcover and L’Estruch, a longstanding festival partner.

In this twelfth edition, the residency programme culminates in the premieres of El temps a través d’un forat, by Aina Roca Mora, and Jo vull mirar dins del cràter d’un volcà quan estigui a punt d’esclatar, by Javiera Gazitua, as well as the inclusion of CAU, by Quim Bigas, in the forthcoming Objectes Perduts programme.

The continuity of residencies, the return of artists and the revival of existing works reflect the festival’s commitment to artistic sustainability: allowing works to evolve beyond their premieres, fostering new encounters with audiences and supporting creative processes that need time to grow.

TEIXIDORES: MEETINGS AND REFLECTION FOR ARTISTS

From 13 to 15 November, the professional programme Teixidores will bring together artists, programmers, institutions and local and international professionals for a space of exchange and reflection centred on otherness: the ability to open ourselves to what is different from us and allow it to transform our perspective. Connected to the festival programme, these meetings will encourage professional exchange and strengthen the international profile of artists from the region.

Participants will include international professionals such as Ivo Barić, Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Nathalie Elain and Tim Sandweg, alongside a talk by Daniel G. Andújar and contributions from other artists and professionals in the field, as well as the partner venues that help shape the festival.

The programme begins on 13 November at the Institut Ramon Llull, with an international gathering exploring how otherness transforms approaches to programming, mediation and international cooperation. On 14 November, at the Fundació SGAE, the focus will be on art, otherness and collaboration in the context of a hyperconnected society. Finally, on 15 November, the Fundació Joan Brossa will host a collective account of the meetings’ reflections and experiences. In parallel, a professional itinerary will offer participants the opportunity to visit partner venues and attend IF Barcelona performances presented there.

OBJECTES PERDUTS: A YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMME

Beyond the festival dates, Objectes Perduts ensures continuity for IF Barcelona’s activities through a programme combining presentation, creation and mediation. Developed in close collaboration with the Fundació Joan Brossa, the project extends to other venues and institutions, including Antic Teatre, CCCB, Teatre L’Artesà and Santa Mònica, among others. Its aim is to support creative processes, revisit existing works and keep the dialogue between artists and audiences alive.

The 2026 programme began with Ja t’ho vaig dir, by Agnès Mateus & Quim Tarrida; I Trust You, by Vivian Friedrich; and Saeta, by Javier Aranda, as well as El Gordo Ronal, by Paula La Fea. During the first half of the year, the programme continued with Escolarizar la pregunta, by Pedro Sepúlveda; Labor, by Pepe Seguí; and Artefacte mata el monstre, by Clytemnestra & Assoc. It also includes Resonances, a mediation project that will continue into 2027.

The programme will continue throughout the first half of 2027 with projects such as ELPIS (o un pessebre d’avui), by Irene Vicente; Parias, by Javier Aranda; eine modellschöne ausstellung / una exposició maqueta, by Mariona Pujol Miravent and David G. Torres; Tête-à-tête, by Stéphane Gladyszewski; De lluny, by Verónica Navas; and a version of CAU, by Quim Bigas.

Festival IF, Teixidores and Objectes Perduts thus operate as three projects within a single platform. Presenting and making visible, thinking and connecting, supporting and ensuring continuity are actions that constantly flow between all three.